One of Nashville’s most prolific and creative songwriters, RODNEY CROWELL is in the zone on his new solo album, Tarpaper Sky. STORY BY JON FREEMAN 62 COUNTRYWEEKLY.COM odney Crowell could probably be excused for slowing down a little bit at this point, but he doesn’t seem to have any interest in doing that. He’s kept a steady output of new music coming—like 2012’s KIN collabora- tion with poet Mary Karr and 2013’s Gram- my-winning Old Yellow Moon collaboration with Emmylou Harris—and he still gets out and plays shows, including a whirlwind week of gigs at South by Southwest in March. “I just set my mind right before I got there,” he cheerfully explains over the phone. “I said, ‘You know what, this is work. Don’t think of it as anything else. No soundcheck. Just go do your work.’ And I made it through with energy to spare.” It would be a hefty challenge for just about anyone, particularly someone who’s enjoyed more than 40 years working in the music business. But Rodney still seems like Rodney reunited with his former band- a boundless source of energy, and Tarpa- mate and longtime friend Emmylou Harris per Sky—his first solo album since 2008— (above left) for the Grammy-winning finds the singer/songwriter in top form. collection Old Yellow Moon. Rodney originally started on the proj- ect back in 2010 and had some of the Rodney’s intriguing character studies songs recorded. But then he got the ex- like the Dylan-esque “Frankie Please” citing opportunity to work with Mary and its rapid-fire lyrics or the fond, tiny Karr on KIN, which featured vocal contributions from details of family in “Grandma Loved That Old Man.” Vince Gill, Norah Jones, Lucinda Williams and more. “To There’s a literary quality to much of what Rodney does, be honest with you, my passion for it overtook [Tarpaper like the title phrase’s employment to describe a lonely Sky] because those songs happened so fast and they were night in “God I’m Missing You.” of a quality that I was delighted with,” he says. The pastoral landscapes of southeast Texas (where And when it rains, it pours, as they say. “Right in the Rodney was born) and Louisiana are prevalent in several middle of that, Emmy calls me and said, ‘Let’s make a re- songs, including “The Long Journey Home,” “Fever on cord together,’” recalls Rodney. And since you don’t say no the Bayou” and others. Rodney drew on his memories of to Emmylou Harris, the pair of old friends wrote and re- living there for inspiration, so his stories—even the fic- corded Old Yellow Moon. “So that moved to the head of the tionalized ones—have the ring of truth. “I don’t know that line,” he says. “I knew that I would eventually finish this I’ve ever seen it anywhere but down there, where they record. I was proud of what I was doing. I wanted to get it whitewash the trunks of trees. Was it because of some out, but I said, ‘No, I’m gonna trust the timetables here.’” low-lying insect that would get in the tree or if it’s just So it took Rodney a little longer to get there, but Tar- pretty?” he ponders. “But down through that part of the paper Sky was finally finished. The lead-off song, “The world, it’s an interesting thing. I wouldn’t live there now Long Journey Home,” which chronicles a cross-country but it certainly holds romance for me. I guess because ride and the shifting landscape along the way, could al- my childhood there I can access early memory, and the most serve as a metaphor for the album’s creation. “When poignancy and vividness of early memory is good fuel.” I came back to finish it up, I had a new batch of songs I That fuel makes a potent mixer for Rodney’s recording ap- had accrued over that time period. I had gotten off into proach, which is to capture everything essentially live with- another thing that didn’t really go with the original tone out many overdubs. Overproduced records, he says, have had of Tarpaper Sky,” explains Rodney of putting the final their “sexuality” removed or just feel outright lifeless. touches on it, which required making sure the song selec- “It started with me with a record called Sex & Gasoline tion was cohesive in spite of the time gap. “So there were [from 2008] where everything that you hear was played songs that I was just itching to record and did, but once I live in the studio and it’s performance over production,” tried to fit them in with the other songs on Tarpaper Sky, he says. “I’m not interested in produced music anymore. it didn’t fit.” Presumably those tunes will appear on a fu- I’m interested in performed music.” With the kind of en- ture project, so don’t worry. ergy Rodney brings to the game, fans can look forward to RODNEY CROWELL BY DAVID MCCLISTER/ALL EYES MEDIA; PERF WITH EMMYLOU BY LISA A. WALKER A. LISA BY EMMYLOU WITH PERF MEDIA; EYES MCCLISTER/ALL DAVID BY CROWELL RODNEY But what you can hear on Tarpaper Sky are more of many more great performances. CW COUNTRYWEEKLY.COM 63.